books.google.com - The classic work that redefined the sociology of knowledge and has inspired a generation of philosophers and thinkers In this seminal book, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann examine how knowledge forms and how it is preserved and altered within a society. Unlike earlier theorists and philosophers,...http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Social_Construction_of_Reality.html?id=Jcma84waN3AC&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareThe Social Construction of Reality

This is one of my favorite books of all time. I am a political scientist who read it for the first time in Undergraduate School a few years back, but i refer back to it all the time in my mind still to this day i have my first cope all scribbled in and highlighted. Half the time i was laughing out loud at one passage or another. Honestly, this book is a MUST for all people working in any social science. It gets to the heart of how we interact with each other and why without becoming to incomprehensibly philosophical. Berger and Luckmann have a sense of humor which adds richness and character to this otherwise dry subject. :)

This book earns two stars only because of the impact it has had on the fields of Sociology and Philosophy. The book relies heavily on thinkers such as Freud, Marx, and Hegel to justify itself yet does not feel obliged to defend its use of these thinkers. Given how Freud is largely dismissed in the psychological community, and the philosophies of Marx and Hegel are highly contentious, I wish the author had done more to defend his arguments. Rather he goes about making claims about human nature and society and citing these (and other) highly contentious figures (incl. Weber and Durkheim). Examples include his reliance on Freud for his analysis of human sexuality and his flat out rejection of "realism" by simply saying it doesn't work. Both these and other claims are hardly obvious facts and should be backed up. As it stands to me the book is influential but largely devoid of any justification for his theories. More specific and well grounded work on social construction can be found in Gergen's books. Gergen does a much better job of providing a strong philosophical underpinning for these theories.